Hey everyone!!
I did it, I made it to Arkansas!! I am actually serving in the Sugar Creek ward, Rogers Zone and Rogers district. It is where the mission home is and my mission president. It's also right next to Bentonville so I'm in the heart of the mission!! It's so great! My companion is Sister Tillotson and she is awesome! Together we white washed the area (or shot-gunned) and so now this area has sisters instead of Elders. So that means we are both new to the area and we are both trying to meet everyone and learn everyone's names. It's been a fun adventure. We've been meeting the whole ward and it's been so fun getting to know everyone! The ward is so nice to us and so happy to have sister missionaries now. It's awesome.
So when we first got to the mission home, they gave us a lot of information, we had our meetings with President Loveland, and then they let us loose and had us go tracting in the park. They gave each companionship a Book of Mormon and said go give it to someone. It was so crazy! So we went and had to approach people and talk to them. It was really scary and awkward at first, but as soon as we started talking with people it got easier and was super fun. The lady my companion and I talked to actually already had a Book of Mormon so we didn't give ours away, but we did give her a pass a long card which was great. It was just so cool that they put us right to work and right in the field. Really cool!!
This week was full of lots of hard work. We had to do some more deep cleaning to the apartment since the elders lived there last and we got some wonderful new furniture from the ward members. They got us a new couch, new office chairs, cabinet, broom, food, pretty much everything it was so great. We also did a lot of finding. We went to lots of members houses and tried to go meet investigators. It's really hard being new to the area and not knowing anyone at first, but we are getting there and it's fantastic!
The people here are mostly from Utah or other places and are just here because of Walmart, so I don't feel too far away from home so that's good. The area we are in is mostly farms, they are big houses and lots of grass yards and fields. There are possums and armadillo's on the road everywhere (all dead) and luckily no one has tried to feed us that yet so that's good :) The house my companion and I are staying in is this cute little cabin looking home in the woods. It's one of the members basements and it's awesome. It's like our own personal sacred grove right behind us. I love it.
It's been a blast being out here and being a missionary. I know that God has a plan for each of us and I am so grateful part of His plan for me was to be here. We have a zone conference of Thursday and in preparation for that President Loveland has asked us to read a talk which is called Desire by Dallin H. Oaks. It's super good and I love how he talks about having a sincere desire leads to action and so if we have a desire to be better missionaries, in the ward or out in the field, if we act on that desire we will become that. It so easy to get a desire for something, but it's putting in the effort to actually go out and do it where the miracles happen and the blessings come. I just really wanted to share that with all of you. :)
I am so happy to be a missionary for this church and to be able to be in Arkansas. I love you all so much and thank you so much for all your support for me. I know I wouldn't be here without all of you. My testimony has grown so much just from being here for a week and being at the MTC, I love it. I have learned the importance of involving members in missionary work as well. We can do so much to help the missionaries at home and I would just like to encourage you all to find out who the missionaries are right now and ask if you can help! They love working with you and it's really such an amazing blessing to be with the members. Anyways, I love you all! I miss you so much, but I know I'm where I need to be :)
Love, Sister Burton
Funny moments: Sister Tillotson, "Look at all those dogs!... oh..." *They were goats* haha I have no idea why this was so funny but she was so excited to see so many dogs and thought it was crazy and then when I said they were goats she's like oh.. not as cool. It was just so funny. Also, we saw a cow's pen on fire! The hay or poop or something caught on fire and the firetruck was using the hose to put it out, but the poor cow was still in the pen. The cow was fine, but it was just a crazy thing to see. We also saw a fox! Apparently Sister Conover told us that she's lived her for about 15 years and that's only the second one she's seen, so that was cool. Also, the elders who lived in our house before us left a lot of random sticky notes everywhere! They say all sorts of things and in the closet they left us a shirt hanging that said "Lets get weird" it was funny. So, successful week! :)
These are all the before pictures and I will send the after pictures next week. Also, The fog is so cool here in the mornings and the sunsets are beautiful! The sun is so dark and pretty. There are also chickens all over our house because the people who live there have a bunch for eggs and stuff. It's fun seeing them everywhere.
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